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In Vivo Imaging of Axonal Organelle Transport in the Mouse Brain

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Axonal Transport

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 2431))

Abstract

Visualization and analysis of axonal organelle transport has been mostly conducted in vitro, using primary neuronal cell cultures, although more recently, intravital organelle imaging has been established in model organisms such as drosophila, zebrafish, and mouse. In this chapter, we describe a method to visualize axonal transport of cellular organelles such as dense core vesicles or mitochondria in the living mouse brain in order to study organelle transport in its native environment. We achieve this goal by injecting adeno-associated viruses expressing fluorescently tagged marker proteins into thalamic nuclei of mice, thereby transducing neurons that project to the surface of the brain. Axonal projections and trafficking of organelles can be imaged with a 2-photon microscope through a chronically implanted window in the mouse skull in anesthetized as well as awake mice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Functional Neuroanatomy, Institute for Anatomy and Cell Biology, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

    Johannes Knabbe, Jil Protzmann & Thomas Kuner

  2. Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Department of General Psychiatry, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany

    Johannes Knabbe

  3. Karolinska Institutet, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm, Sweden

    Jil Protzmann

Authors
  1. Johannes Knabbe
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  2. Jil Protzmann
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  3. Thomas Kuner
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Johannes Knabbe .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Basic and Clinical Neurosciences, Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK

    Alessio Vagnoni

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© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

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Knabbe, J., Protzmann, J., Kuner, T. (2022). In Vivo Imaging of Axonal Organelle Transport in the Mouse Brain. In: Vagnoni, A. (eds) Axonal Transport. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2431. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1990-2_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1990-2_5

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-1989-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-1990-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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